Australian rugby
Michael Foley hails Brumbies
April 28, 2013
The Brumbies' George Smith is tackled by Force players, Brumbies v Western Force, Super Rugby, Canberra Stadium, Canberra, April 27, 2013
George Smith was strong for the Brumbies © Getty Images
Enlarge

The Brumbies' story is one that Western Force can use as an example, the Perth team's head coach, Michael Foley, said after watching the ACT side produce a fantastic attacking performance to run in six tries in romping to a 41-7 Super Rugby victory at Canberra Stadium on Saturday evening.

The Jake White-coached Australian conference leaders might not be a champion team just yet, but Foley believes they are an inspiration for other teams in Super Rugby. "You're not a championship team until you win one but the improvement [on last year] is dramatic," Foley said of the Brumbies. "They have been going at it for 18 months and the work that they did leading into the season last year was critical in their foundation going forward. They have had some excellent performances. When I was asked last week about the Brumbies, I said it was a great story. We are a fair way off them but the Brumbies are an inspirational story for an underdog team or a team that is struggling and wanting to come good."

With the Brumbies in such relentless and ruthless attacking mode, the last thing they needed was a helping hand; but that is what they got as the Perth-based franchise produced an error strewn performance, presenting the Brumbies with plenty of turnover ball from careless play and unforced errors.

"I think playing one of the top sides we knew we had to execute early and we didn't do that and the Brumbies were good enough with their line speed and their strength, which we knew they would be, to cause problems for us," Foley said. :You almost lose a reference point in the game. You lose complete control and it's not until half-time that you can regroup and understand where you are at. The played very well but there were some times out there that we made errors that were unforced that cost us."

The Force head into next weekend's match with Queensland Reds hoping, once more, to be a finals pest. Foley's side stunned the 2011 champions with a 19-12 win in round five, and will be hoping to record a memorable double to throw a spanner in the works of the Reds' title hopes.

"I think every game for us we are chasing a little bit of consistency in our performance and combinations allow you to have consistency and we have had a couple of bumps and bruises at different times to key guys," Foley said. "You have a lot of young guys who are hitting the heights one week and are not able to back it up the next but over time to develop that consistency and playing the derby games mean a lot to us which is why we are so disappointed tonight."

The Brumbies impressed in dismantling Western Force (video available only in Australia)
© Sportal

Live Sports

Communication error please reload the page.